 Coming up on DTNS, telemedicine is on the rise, and maybe an option you didn't know you had, inbox.ai could revolutionize customer service, and we combed through all those iOS 14 revelations. This is the Daily Tech News for Tuesday, March 10th, Mario Day, because MAR 10, 2020 in Los Angeles, I'm Tom Merritt. And from Studio Redwood, I'm Sarah Lane. And from the Dark Forests of Southern Finland, I'm Patrick Beja. And I'm the show's producer, Roger Chang. We were just talking about Sarah's old electronic Snoopy game machine that she's restoring, which by restoring, I mean, you're going to get a battery for it. Yeah, two triple, what did we say? Triple C? Triple A? No, you don't you need C or Ds? I don't know. Just C. Yeah, not triple C, just the regular C. Also, we realized that we're all headed to Patrick's house if the virus gets out of hand, because he's the only one safe. You're being welcome. Thank you. That's very nice. Get the wider conversation on our expanded show, Good Day Internet. Become a member right now, patreon.com, slash DTNS. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. Uber has resumed testing autonomous cars in San Francisco. Two vehicles with safety drivers will be operating during daylight hours only. Uber's autonomous cars are only operating in autonomous mode in Pittsburgh and San Francisco in the US. Huawei will launch its P40 smartphone during an online event March 26. It previously had planned an in-person event in Paris. The P40 is expected to have new zoom capabilities on a significantly upgraded camera array. It will be the first P series phone not to be allowed to use Google apps and services because of US trade restrictions. Bitdefender and a multi-university group led by Joe Van Buik independently discovered a new speculative execution vulnerability in Intel chips called load value injection or LVI. An attacker could exploit LVI to intercept data passing through the secure enclave. And even this is new for some of these speculative execution or the speculative whatever you call them. Why did that suddenly leave my brain? Speculative execution attacks. It can inject new information. It can not only take information and can put new information and change the results of what's happening. Anyway, LVI is not a practical exploit in the real world. Intel has published a 30 page technical summary of LVI and how to mitigate it if you work in an industry that does think this is a concern. The Game Developers Conference announced it will stream recorded versions of talks from booked speakers for free March 16 through March 20 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time on Twitch. Organizers will also hold a virtual award ceremony for the Independent Games Festival and also the Game Developers Choice Awards. Microsoft will stream some of its own talks including one about Xbox Series X and Project Cloud on March 18. Alright, let's talk a little bit more about what Sensor Tower is accused of doing, Patrick. Indeed BuzzFeed News reports that analytics platform Sensor Tower has been collecting data from millions of people who have installed its VPN and ad blocking apps for Android and iOS. One app prompted users to install root certificates through Safari bypassing restrictions with the promise to block ads in YouTube. The apps collected anonymized usage and analytics data but did not say they were owned by Sensor Tower or that the data was fed to Sensor Tower. Sensor Tower says that it didn't disclose ownership of the apps for competitive reasons, right? Well, because they judge apps, they sell data about which apps are the most popular. So I think what they were trying to say is like we didn't want the app people to think we were competing with them. We just were putting these apps out here to collect data. Half of the story I'm not that upset about. Collecting analytics as long as it was very clear that they were doing it is fine. This wasn't even necessarily for advertising. This was for analytics data that they send to say these are the apps that are used the most often. There's some data analysis there. I think sometimes people get a little overreactive about this collection happening. What I don't like, the half that I'm really upset about is not telling people where the data was going. Transparency is key in any of these situations so that you can decide if you want to take part in that or not. And really, really, really don't like tricking people into installing root certificates. That's a no, no, you don't do that. Yeah, I mean, it's just bad practice. Even if SensorTower maybe being a little underhanded about what apps it owned. Users should be a lot more clear about that. Anonymized data, analytics data that helps SensorTower and could potentially help developers and users depending on whether or not use the service. That in itself isn't the problem. The root certificate is because it's bad practice to train users into thinking, oh, I should do this so that the app works. Agreed 100% times. Alright, we're in a cord. Dyson continues to diversify its beauty product line with a cordless hair straightener called Corral. Settings of 330, 365 or 410 degrees Fahrenheit can be used for fine or thick or even coarse hair. A flexible copper plate holds hair between the clamp and evenly distributates, meaning that hair stays in place better, which also means that the tool can be used fewer times and expose hair to less chance of heat damage. If you've ever used a hair straightener, you know that it's only a matter of time before you see the results of the hair damage. The Corral's battery can charge from 0 to 100% in 70 minutes, last 30 to 60 minutes on a single charge. The battery can also be disengaged to use with only a power cord that could be useful for taking it on a long flight, for example. It's available now in gray with pink trim or purple with gold trim for $499. I know most people probably still think of vacuum cleaners when they think of Dyson, but hair dryer, curler, and now a straightener, which could also be used as a curler in certain ways. We're really seeing Dyson move into the bathroom, into the beauty care situation here. I don't know that this is a better hair straightener except for the part where it's more of a material design to distribute the heat. If that really works, then maybe if it doesn't damage your hair, that is a good improvement. Yeah, I'm one of those people with a Dyson vacuum cleaner. It works really well. I love that vacuum cleaner. I've never loved a vacuum cleaner more than this one. In fact, it's kind of weird. I have really straight hair, so hair straighteners aren't really my thing. But the whole idea of, you know, we think so much of tech products go in wireless. If it works, if the battery lasts long enough, it makes a lot more sense. It just cleans up the whole process of the office environment. Same thing for the bathroom. Right now, and I've had so many bathrooms in my life, right now I have one outlet in my bathroom, and it's placed in a way where it's just kind of inconvenient and sort of hitting other things when I plug in my hair dryer, which I do use. And to have something wireless, it's a little thing. But I know there's some people out there that are nodding their heads. Like, oh, if there just wasn't that cord kind of like bumping into other stuff, like knocking things over, that's cool. Yeah, indeed. Chinese platforms like JD.com are seeing a significant increase in activity around telemedicine providers. And the economist notes that JD.com itself arose during the SARS epidemic in 2003 when its founder, Richard Liu, decided to shut down physical locations of electronic stores that were not leaving the house that time and moved them online starting JD.com, which is huge now. There's also other telemedicine advances happening around the world. Legislation signed in the U.S. Friday expands the coverage of telemedicine by Medicare. Telemedicine is covered by Medicare for rural residents visiting specialists that are far away, but those restrictions are now waived in response to the COVID-19 outbreak if you're in an area with the outbreak. A survey by software advice found that 84% of patients are more likely to choose a provider who offers telemedicine over one who doesn't. And a couple other things. Lariat.net in Wyoming is offering free internet service to telehealth providers to help them increase their capacity. And UCHealth Virtual Urgent Care in Colorado is offering telemedicine for a flat fee of $49 if your insurance or Medicare doesn't cover it. So we're seeing a lot of expansion there. And I asked Patrick to kind of look into telemedicine in Europe. And you found out that it's been recognized for a while, but it's fairly new in coverage, right? Exactly, yeah. I've never used it, and I honestly don't know anyone that has used it. This might change now in the next few weeks and months. But it's been recognized as a practice, as you said, for about a decade in the law. But the important part of it is, was it covered by the healthcare system that we have? And it turns out that was implemented about a year and a half ago, about towards the end of 2018. So it's something that wasn't prompted by the latest outbreak. But it's been something that the government has investigated and possibly is pushing for because it has a lot of advantages. Obviously, it's not something that you're going to want to use for every type of medical care you need. But they have a fairly, it seems they're doing a fairly good job at cataloging the different cases where it could be used and things like that. So I think this is an example of things being well thought out in advance. And I guess that because the system is already in place, it's going to see a lot of use now in the next few months. Yeah, especially with COVID-19. You don't want to expose yourself to others or others to you if you do have it. If you don't have it, you don't want to go into an office where someone might have it and you might catch it. So telemedicine is more important than usual in this particular case. Exactly, yeah. Tell us about Amsterdam. Yes, I will. I shall. Amsterdam's cloud communication platform message bird introduced inbox.ai, which lets customers communicate with a business through WhatsApp, SMS, voice messenger, Instagram, WeChat, Apple Business Chat, RCS, Line and Telegram. Yes, that list is long in inbox.ai and analyzes keywords to suggest replies, handle auto replies and route messages. It supports text, images, video, geolocation and more. It also integrates with third party apps like Shopify, Slack, Salesforce, Jira and more. Founder and CEO Robert this, I guess that's how you pronounce his name, also said that inbox.ai wants to solve the message continuity problem where you have to redeliver information to agents multiple times as you are handed off from one to another. It's free to use inbound messages with pricing for outbound message or plans of $50 to $150 a month to cover most needs. This I think has the potential to really shake up customer service because instead of having one or two ways to handle incoming calls and having to assign them to people like you're on the text messaging, you're on the phone bank. You can just put everybody on this if it works as advertised and the customer can choose however they want to interact with you and all their information will be integrated together. And what you said about continuity, I mean that's a huge complaint. I know a lot of people have, which is I just told the previous person everything or I texted you or emailed you all of this. That's why I'm on the phone with you. Do you not have that in front of you? No, sir. I'm sorry. Can you please do that again? If this could just help solve that, it would be absolutely worth it. And one of the things that I didn't think was super clear from the article but I assume is the way that this works is let's say I'm on Instagram and I want to talk to, I don't know, my telco that would be through the DM feature of Instagram going to the telcos account and then that goes into inbox.ai. I don't think it's through public posts. That wouldn't make any sense, right? It's not some other account that you'd have to know about. Well, Instagram has some business accounts where they can handle business communications. I assume it's through that. Got it. It could probably, I guess, would integrate the thread that you started the conversation. Sure. That might be public. I'm guessing because the beauty of all of this is that it's kind of a, I don't know, zappier or if this then that of communication where it manages to put everything in the format that you want. It's a thing that I think everyone kind of needed in that field. Everyone kind of needed, but no one got out and actually did it. And I agree with you. It seems like it's going to be tremendously helpful and the pricing doesn't seem, I mean, to me it seems kind of low. So I think it will improve, of course, the lives of CS representatives, but possibly also our own. Yeah. And like many of these services, if you're an enterprise, you don't pay $150 a month, you contact them directly and they come up with a suitable plan for you. There's a limit on that $150 a month. But even then, yeah, I agree with you, Patrick. The price per interaction seems, I mean, I checked it out and it seems quite low. But I mean, I'm not a specialist of this, but if it solves a problem that you have as a business and helps your relationship with your customer, I think it's worth money. And I bet that's what inbox.ai is betting on. I'm curious to see how this works. Jane Manchin-Wong discovered code in the Facebook for Android app indicating that Facebook is testing the option to cross-post Facebook stories to Instagram. Facebook told TechCrunch it is indeed testing the feature. Users have been able to do the opposite, going from Instagram to Facebook and cross-posting stories since 2017. So a few years later, but not really a surprise that they would go vice versa in this case. TechCrunch's Josh Constine also points out this could let Facebook sync up already viewed content to prevent reruns. We all hate those. Well, maybe you don't, but I do. When you've already looked at Facebook stories and then you check Instagram and you see the same thing and you're like, should I like it again? I already liked it in one place. No, I already liked it in one place, et cetera. Anybody happy? I don't use, I mean, I look at Instagram stories from time to time. I don't know when the last time I looked at a Facebook story is so I'm absolutely the wrong target market. But I feel Josh Constine and your pain. If you're seeing stuff in one place and then you go to another place and you see the same stuff again, you're like, I already saw this. I don't need to see it again. So yeah, if they sync that up for people who use both features frequently, it seems like a good move. Yeah, Facebook and Instagram, yes, they're different platforms, but they become more and more seamless as time goes on. And I do see a lot of the same content. And it's not the end of the world, but it would be nice for the platform to be able to know that particularly if I've already engaged with something. Don't show it to me again wherever it has been cross-posed. There's definitely a logical reasoning behind doing this. And it makes sense as cleaner because a lot of things already synced messages and I mean, many other things, comments, stuff like that. It does beg the question, though, of is this also part of Facebook integrating everything together so that they can never be, you know, broken into separate companies? This is not, I mean, I know what you mean. They're not doing this feature so they won't get broken into separate companies. But doing things like this further integrates everything and makes it harder to separate it out. Although I think the chances of them ever getting separated into separate companies are low. It's more about like when you're in one ecosystem now, you're in all their ecosystems, whether you want to be or not. Hey, folks, if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes, be sure to subscribe to Daily Tech Headlines. We've actually talked yesterday about one of the leaks coming out of iOS 14 where folks are looking at the source code and finding indications of features that are coming from 9 to 5 Mac, which has been doing a lot of the legwork on this. We know about those mousepad features, the improved mouse features beyond just accessibility, trackpad gestures. We talked about that yesterday, but also triple lens camera display on the iPad. So the iPad might have a time-of-flight 3D sensor, a wide-angle lens, an ultra-wide lens, and a telephoto lens. And on iOS, they're finding evidence of an augmented reality app code named Gobi that is testing in Apple stores and at Starbucks, apparently. Not sure what you would use an augmented reality for in Starbucks, but I'm sure there are plenty of reasons. There's indications that the next cheap iPhone, some people call it the iPhone 9, some people call it the SE2. We don't know what the official name might end up to be, would have Touch ID and Express Transit. Express Transit is the thing that lets you tap your phone against the fairgate when you're going into the train area without having to unlock your phone every time. But the one that's got everybody excited today is a new home screen page that shows all your installed app icons in a list view. Android users will call this the app drawer. It's very similar to that the way it sounds. And you'd be able to sort that list by unread notifications. So any app that has an unread notification could be at the top. You could say show me the most used, so go from most frequently used to the least used or vice versa. And also there are some Siri suggestions based on time of day and location that might show up. You kind of see these when you swipe left in iOS right now. But I think these would like put things at the top of your list based on, oh, you're at the gym. We know you probably want your music and this fitness app. And so we'll put those at the top right now because it's that time of day and we see the location you're at. There's also some other features here, but before we move on to some of the things in Apple TV and some of the others. What do y'all think of this? Love the new home screen icon list. I love the idea of it getting a little bit smarter about my habits. Not every day is exactly the same for me about a creature of habit. So yes, the example that you said, Tom, about being at the gym. Yeah, like put that podcast app right at the top. You know it's 10. That's kind of when Sarah goes on a walk with her dog, that sort of thing. I love the idea of being able to sort more easily. I have a lot of apps on my phone and I'm okay at searching. That works fine. But I like the idea of having another way to sort through apps very much the way that I use macOS, the Finder. I mean, it's not going to be the same, but it feels more similar to that than what I've had in the past. And I'm looking forward to it. You can also apparently pin apps that will not get closed or get prioritized. Which could be interesting on iOS because I don't know if it's my iPhone 10, which is getting old. But it seems that the moment I switched to another app, the first one is gone. Bye-bye. I have to restart anything I was doing there. I'm exaggerating, but barely. And I know you discussed the mouse features on the iPad, which might appear actually on the iPad, not just on the iPad Pro. But it does beg the question to me, how much like a PC do we want the iPad to be? It now has a file system, which is not a full-fledged file system, but fairly close to it. And if it has solid mouse features, we already have PCs or PC-like tablets. Do you want the iPad to be that too? I'm exaggerating a little bit because it still touched first and all of that. But I think the question comes into reality. Yeah, I mean, it'll take away one more thing. That's what I've said before. One more thing that stops me from using the iPad as a laptop replacement, which is, oh, well, I've got that fast mouse thing. And iPad OS is getting some more multi-window type management. But it still doesn't match. What's that? The point is, if the thing that gets you to use the iPad as a laptop replacement is to make the iPad into a laptop, kind of, without the keyboard, then what's the point of the iPad? Well, it's a touchscreen laptop, then. It's a smaller touchscreen laptop for people who want a smaller form factor than what you get with the MacBook. And it's a little more lightweight. So just a light PC, then. It was supposed to be more than that. And maybe it still is. I don't know. It was supposed to be something completely new. And it feels like it's drifting towards. Anyway, that's a different conversation. I want it to be more like a laptop for me to be able to use. Actually, I do too. And I think it's a medium. It's a happy medium that would be useful. Also, a couple other things. Mac rumors identified a fitness app code named Seymour that would not just be on iOS, TVOS or watchOS, but all three. So you could use it on your TV, through your Apple TV. Your watch could sort of like prompt you through exercises, or you could just be watching it on your phone. And it would have guided fitness-related videos. The Mac rumors article said we don't see any indication that they would even charge for any of this stuff. It would just be a free thing for people who own Apple devices. That's cool. Because right now the good stuff you do have to pay for, which is not that I don't feel like exercise should be paid for, but otherwise you're kind of like searching for like weird yoga videos on YouTube. So I would love this. I have to say, having watched Eileen search for weird yoga videos or free apps that she can use and airplay from her phone. Once she got the Peloton, that all went away. Because now Peloton has stuff that she can put on the Apple TV or actually just airplay from her iPhone, as well as stuff that's on the bike. And it's all part of that subscription. We talked about the fact that SoulCycle is going to be offering that. There's an app that will be playing with the new SoulCycle. It makes sense for Apple to get in on this game, but are we going to get the same complaint of like, wait a minute, now Apple is competing with other people on their platform. And is that fair? Of course we are. And I think that discussion should happen, but it's not going to stop Apple from doing it. A few more things that are bubbling up in iOS 14 research, detective work. These are again from 9 to 5 Mac, a new Apple TV box and a new remote. We knew about the box. I'm not sure we heard about the remote, but yeah, exactly. I don't know what it is, but it's got to be better than that. Cheers are representing the world. I don't know how good it's going to be. I like the Apple TV remote, but I'm the exception. I'm also the exception, but I also don't mind a new remote. It would be fine if they came up with a new one. And then AirTags will have a user replaceable battery. You'll be able to set them up in bulk through iOS, play a sound to help you locate them, and track through AR on the latest iPhone. So that's what that AR app could be useful is when you leave your phone in the Starbucks, you can use the AR app to find it. I guess you would need an AirTag for that. So maybe you're backpack with the AirTag when you've left it. I don't know. But yeah, it sounds like by the end of this year, we're finally going to get that AirTags thing that we've been hearing about rumors for ever. The user replaceable battery thing, there are some, it would be a little CR 2032, those things. They do exist in rechargeable form. So it could be useful there, but competitors to that not existing product have versions which use these kinds of batteries that last for about a year. So you wouldn't need to change it every couple of months. So that's a great feature as well. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Hey, thanks to everybody who participates in our subreddit, Apple News. It was at the top of the subreddit today. Unsurprisingly, great minds think alike. You could submit stories and vote on them at dailytechnewshow.reddit.com. Let's check out the mailbag. Kevin Eaton, PhD, wrote in about a conversation we were having on Good Day Internet yesterday. Tom said, I ate an MRE for lunch. I was like, what's that? Kevin says, I'm a chief software architect during the day, but a 17-year army officer in the reserves. I'm a major and I love the show. You recently talked about MREs in the GDI intro. We do an intro and outro around Good Day Internet every day. First, for Roger, there are Chili Mac MREs, which in my biased opinion are the best. Second, those drinks that you didn't use are for salt replenishment. Think about being in the jungle or the desert. You're sweating. You need those salts back. During three tours in Afghanistan, those MREs kept me going. In any emergency situation, I'm sure they will supply life-sustaining needs. Honestly, as much flak as the army gets for their cooking, the MREs aren't nearly as bad as their reputation. They provide the calories and nutrition needed to survive and carry out whatever tasks are needed. That's why we enjoy some of them. I love that. I have one of the Chili Macs. I checked my crate. Roger, I don't know. You want me to send you one? I'll let you taste it first. Thank you, Major Dr. Kevin H. Eaton. That is awesome. I appreciate that insight. I emailed Kevin back and told him, my MRE history goes back when I had a roommate in Austin back in the mid-90s who was an army reservist and he would sometimes, after maneuvers, send back leftover MREs and the old cardboard boxes. They seem to have improved since then. Thanks, Kevin, and thanks to everybody who gives us feedback every day. Shout out to patrons at our master and grandmaster levels, including Kenneth's Brad Schick and Paul Boyer. Also thanks to Patrick Beja. Patrick, what has been going on in your world? If you want to listen to my podcast, just check out Frenchspin.com. But if you want to see the beauty of stories, on Instagram, just follow me on Instagram. I'm not Patrick over there. I've been fairly active. And I think it's a really fun. I know most people who listen to podcasts are into Twitter. Instagram deserves your attention. It's a growing network of, you know, a billion people. That's a growing little network of a billion people. Not Patrick on Instagram. I think you'll enjoy what I do. Excellent. Also, folks, since late last year, we've had discount codes for the Daily Tech News Show store as part of our patron rewards. But Patreon just made it a lot easier for you to find them. You can find them in your member benefits now. Patrons should have gotten an automatic email today as I set up the new functionality. But, yeah, you can get 5% off anything in the store with a special Patreon code. Or at certain levels, you can actually not only get 5% off, but also free shipping. You get a free shipping code at the master and grandmaster level. So if you want to find out a little bit more about that, head on over to patreon.com.slashdtns. I mentioned that we love feedback. And a great way is to email us. Our email address is feedback at dailytechnewshow.com. We're also live Monday through Friday at 4.30 p.m. Eastern 2030 UTC. And you can find out more at dailytechnewshow.com.slashlive. Back tomorrow with Scott Johnson. Talk to you then. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. The club hopes you have enjoyed this program.